Welcome to NewsGreed homepage!
NewsGreed - Copyright (C) 2002 - 2004 Leonardo Ferracci
NEW! Versione Italiana!
NewsGreed is a small (about 120 Kbytes!) Java program which automatically downloads binary files (such as MP3, AVI, MPEG, JPG, ...) posted in Usenet newsgroups - it supports automatic reassembly of files split among different articles and different newsgroups too!
As it is written in Java, NewsGreed runs on any platform which supports it, such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris (and maybe even freeBSD...).
Moreover, NewsGreed is free, open source software and is distributed under the GPL!
NewsGreed is listed on: usenet.com, jfind.com, jars.com,
newsreaders.com, linuxlinks.com, usenetportal.com, uncensorednewsfeed.com...
Table of Contents
NewsGreed is a simple application intended to automate the bulk download of binary files from newsgroups; among its features you can find:
- definition of filters to select the articles to download (based on article subject);
- selection of file types (extensions) to download;
- automatic reassembly of files split between different articles and different newsgroups;
while its current limitations are:
- NewsGreed is unable to resume a download stopped because of user intervention or network error;
- missing support for authentication with username and password (for servers which require it).
Just some bug fixes!
- Added the feature of listing the articles of a newsgroup directly from the Newsgroup dialog;
- Added the feature of downloading a single article or a single split file directly from the Article List dialog;
- And of course the usual bug-fixes...
Bug fixes here and there...
Increased processing speed in Article list dialog window.
Bug fixes:
- Resolved a case of malfunction with MIME messages.
Emproved user interface features:
- Added a dialog window which lists all newsgroup available on the selected news server;
- Added a dialog window which lists all articles posted in the selectd newsgroup, with optional view of articles containg split files only.
- Added the feature of explicitely choosing a working directory and a download directory;
- Some bugs fixes here and there (thank you Thomas!);
- First localized version: Italian.
- Now NewsGreed REALLY works with yEnc posts!!! The relevant bug with multipart decoding has been fixed;
- Fixed some not correct interactions with the newsgroup dialog.
With respect to version 0.1, you can find the following improvements in NewsGreed 0.2:
- User interaction:
- A more comfortable window and dialog positioning;
- Confirm dialogs added when stopping jobs and closing application with download job running (this avoids the risk of accidentally aborting a huge file download just for a single click in the wrong place!);
- A command line version (with a limited set of options) has been added;
- Newsgroup support:
- Added the feature of searching more than one single newsgroup for every job - so if some parts of a file are missing in a certain newsgroup but that same file is cross-posted in another newsgroup, the likelyhood of downloading the complete file increases;
- Supported encodings:
- Added MIME/Base64 encoding support;
- Added a very quick and dirty support for yEnc.
0. Requirements
NewsGreed is a program written in Java: you need JDK or JRE 1.3.0 or higher installed on your machine to run it.
1. Installation
No particular installation procedure is required: just copy the NewsGreed.jar file in the working directory you wish to use with the application.
2. Launching the program
You can launch NewsGreed in two ways:
- from the command line, move to the directory (folder) where you copied the
NewsGreed.jar file and then type:
java -jar NewsGreed.jar
- from your graphic interface, double-click the
NewsGreed.jar icon (this should work at least for Win and Solaris).
3. Setting up parameters
When the NewsGreed GUI shows up, press the Server button to set the news server parameters (address and port): these parameters should be provided by your ISP (for example: server news.myisp.com, port 119).
Then press the Newsgroup button to show the Newsgroup parameters dialog windows, which allows you to choose the parameters of the download job:
- select the newsgroups to scan using the
Newsgroup Name list;
- if you right-click on an item in the
Newsgroup Name list while pressing the SHIFT key, a pop-up menu will allow you to show
the list of the articles in the relevant newsgroup;
- if you want to add a new newsgroup to the list, click on the
Add another newsgroup... button and enter the newsgroup name in the dialog window;
- press the
Choose newsgroup... button to list all newsgroups available on the selected server - this will show the Newsgroup list dialog window, please see 3.2 for a detailed explanation of its features;
- the string to search for in the subject of the articles in the newsgroup: only the binary articles whose subject contains that string will be downloaded - you can also specify a list of strings by separating single strings with a comma (",") and NO SPACES: thus all binary articles whose subject matches at least one of the strings will be downloaded; please note that matching is performed on a case-insensitive basis.
Finally, if you leave this field empty ALL binary articles will be downloaded;
- the file extensions you wish to download (again, a list of strings separated by commas and NO SPACES), for example "
mp3,midi" or "jpeg,jpg,gif"; if you leave this field empty all files (with ANY extension) will be downloaded.
- choose if you want to download files which are split between two or more articles (article size limits on most news servers make this solution necessary when posting larger files such as sounds and videos) or files posted in a sigle binary article (this happens typically for pictures).
- if you choose to download a file which is split between two or more articles, it is possible that not all parts can be found in the newsgroups you selected; to download anyway all the file parts which it is possible to find, you can check the "
Download fragments of corrupt files" box.
3.1 Settings dialog
NewsGreed allows you to choose which directory it should use as working directory (where article lists of single newsgroups, divided by server, are stored for easier and quicker retrieval) and which as download directory (where all binary files downloaded are stored).
By default, NewsGreed uses the directory from which it is launched as its working directory, and stores every binary file in a directory with the same name as the newsgroup it was downloaded from.
To change such behavior, click the Settings button in the bottom of NewsGreed main window: a dialog window will appear, which you can use to set the working/download directory used by the application.
3.2 Newsgroup list dialog
The Newsgroup list dialog lists all newsgroups available on the currently selected server; if no info is locally available, you will be asked to download the list from the server.
The main features of this dialog are:
the Find... (and Find up/Find down) buttons allow to search for a newsgroup whose name contains a given string;
the Update button retrieves newly added newsgroups from the server (as of NewsGreed 0.4 this feature is not yet implemented!);
the list contains all the newsgroups available on the server;
the Move to newsgroup search list button adds the selected newsgroup(s) to the list of newsgroups from which to download files (in the Newsgroup parameters dialog);
the View articles in the selected newsgroup button shows the Article list dialog window, which lists all articles available in the currently selected newsgroup - please see 3.3 for further details.
3.3 Article list dialog
The Article list dialog lists all articles posted in a given newsgroup; the main features of this dialog are:
the Find... (and Find up/Find down) buttons allow to search for an article whose subject contains a given string;
the Update button retrieves newly added articles from the server;
the list contains the subjects of the articles posted in the newsgroup;
if you right-click on an item in the article list while pressing the SHIFT key, a pop-up menu will allow you to download the
single article or (if split files only are displayed - see below) the whole split file;
the radio buttons allow to view all articles in the newsgroup, or just the articles which contain split files, or just the articles which contain split files with NO PART missing;
if you select an article from the list, its subject will be copied in the text field;
the Add to search string button allows to add the text in the text field to the search string in the Newsgroup parameters dialog.
4. Starting and stopping download
Once parameters are set up, press the Start button to begin the automatic download: first the articles in the newsgroups will be scanned (retrieving info from the server when needed for newly posted articles), then the actual binary file download begins: two bars show the progress in the overall download process and in the current file download.
If you wish to stop the download, just press the Stop button.
5. Using the command line version
A limited-feature command line version of NewsGreed has been added to the .jar since version 0.2; to extract it, type:
jar -xfv NewsGreed.jar *.class
and then launch it using:
java clNewsGreed -s|w <server> <port> <newsgrouplist> [<searchstring>]
The meaning of the parameters is as follows:
-s means search for split files;
-w means search for files posted in a single article;
<server> is the NNTP server address;
<port> is the NNTP server port;
<newsgrouplist> is a comma-separated list of newsgroups to search;
<searchstring> is an optional comma-separated list of search strings (to be matched against article subjects).
Click on the links below to download:
- NewsGreed.jar (141 KBytes), NewsGreed Java executable only;
- NewsGreedSource.jar (112 KBytes), NewsGreed source code only - to extract all source files, type:
jar xfv NewsGreedSource.jar at the command prompt; you can then compile NewsGreed by entering: javac NewsGreed.java;
- NewsGreedFull.jar (243 KBytes), NewsGreed executable and source code;
- manual.txt, NewsGreed manual.
NewsGreed is distributed under the GPL General Public License version 2 or higher; a copy of the license can be found here or by typing:
jar -xfv NewsGreed.jar license.txt
once you downloaded the program.
Be sure to read and understand the following disclaimer before using NewsGreed!
NO WARRANTY
BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
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For any info concerning NewsGreed, please email [email protected].